Vujinovic: Clark would have testified differently in The Hague if General Jackson were alive

Security studies researcher Nikola Vujinovic believes that former US general Wesley Clark, during his testimony in The Hague, built on the statements of previous defense witnesses who claimed that the KLA was not an organized formation at all and that crimes against Serbs were committed out of revenge.

Vujinovic tells Kosovo Online that such testimony by Wesley Clark, as well as other defense witnesses, in a way justifies the crimes committed against Serbs.

"Yes, this is in line with all the defense witnesses. These are the common points that claim that the KLA was not a formation capable of any kind of command or management of the conflict in Kosovo. It is the story that the evil Serbs committed countless crimes and that everything that later happened to the Serbian people was deserved revenge. This is a kind of justification for what is happening now as well, because if they committed crimes and genocide in the nineties, then they supposedly deserve to be treated as criminals even now. Likewise, the fact that Clark used this to defend his own historical contribution to the conflict, insisting that everything associated with him, including the alleged order to attack the Russian battalion at Slatina in 1999, was untrue. He claims that the late General Jackson made that up. I believe his testimony would have been very different if Mr. Jackson were still alive", Vujinovic says.

Our interlocutor also believes that the prosecution was not particularly successful in cross-examinations.

"Yes, all the testimonies of the defense witnesses, and I must say that the prosecution was not very successful in cross-examinations in disproving them, even though the Serbian state submitted all documentation confirming that the KLA was an organized military formation with its commanders, minutes, reports, and orders. The fact is that the witnesses, including Clark, clearly stated that it was a completely decentralized group, farmers by day, fighting for the freedom of their villages by night, with no commanders, and that Mr. Thaci became, so to speak, the leader of these formations because he was handsome. I assume his nickname 'The Snake' came from his snake-like physique, not from the crimes he committed", he says.

The trial is nearing its end, but whether the former KLA leaders will be found guilty, Vujinovic  claims they will be acquitted.

"Well, look, I must say that I am one of those who from the beginning believed that this was all a farce. Thaci and his group will be acquitted in this trial, there will be no sentences, just as Haradinaj was acquitted. The fact is that this was a kind of, let me call it, pressure on the Kosovo political elite in early 2020 so that Mr. Kurti could come to power and attempt to conduct dialogue with the Serbs and so on, which turned out to be very problematic. But he essentially undermined that dialogue with what I’ll call his crimes against the Serbian national community in Kosovo and Metohija."